Too much talky talky

I learned something today. A hard something. Here's the verse:
Prov 17:9 He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.
Yeah, tough one right. This is so hard to practice, but it gets a lot of practice because no one is good at it!! There are some things I am very good at not repeating, of covering out of love for someone else. But then there are those things that are said that I don't even think about as improper to talk about. Yikes. I've really been working on going to the person who is the topic of conversation when something is said that could be harmful. But I am no where near being good at it yet. When I think about talking with people I realize that so many conversations are about others. Why do we do that? Why do I do that? I know much of it is based out of compassion and genuine concern but still, why?
I know as women we are relationally based, we live for relationships, for caring for others, for compassion and companionship. I wonder how often we are repeating matters that could cause a friendship to suffer.
Does that mean we can't seek counsel from others? I don't think so. I think it means we have to be very careful with whom we seek that counsel. Sometimes our best counsel is someone not so close to us, someone who can see the situation more clearly. Sometimes we should seek someone we know has gone thru a similar situation for their counsel. Sometimes out of the blue someone will seek us to give us counsel. That is always so weird!! How do people know? How do people know when we are struggling? Because it shows. It shows on our face, in where we sit, in who we are sitting with or not sitting with, in our tears during worship songs. It shows because sometimes people are really good at watching others and seeing the signs of stress. It shows because sometimes God wants us to step out of our boxes and seek the counsel, or seek to be the counsel to someone.
So cover the offenses so you are showing love, and don't repeat what you are told in confidence because you could ruin a friendship- yours or someone you love. Be someone who is good at counsel and keeping information confidential. Strive for excellence.
That is what I learned today. It's going to be hard striving for that excellence, but I'm gonna strive- and fail, and succeed. Wish me luck! I wish you luck, too.